It's been a nightmare

[waterwheels]

Hello, all - Our 2004 GTI has been a major headache since we bought it in late October, 2004. Only got to run it about 10 hours before having dealer winterize it. Brought home in spring to run about 4 hours and it developed a problem with a leak where a connection was threaded into the manifold - fixed at dealership. Ran it very little in 2005 due to drought here in Midwest. Winterized again and got it back in the water in 2006 and was trouble free for the summer. At 109.4 hours on the keyboard, we developed electrical problem that required new stator and the start switch was going, so we fixed it. When the shop got that fixed and got her running again, they found the exhaust manifold was cracked, the plate-arm assembly had to be replaced and the tune pipe was shot so they repaired all of that. We get to 2008 and think finally we have this thing ready to rock when it developed a really rough idle five minutes after we took it off the trailer for the second time last summer. At 118.0 hours on the keyboard, the shop tells us jet pump is shot, the impeller and wear ring are seriously damaged and it's going to cost us $2,567.51 to get her back in the water. At this point, we've spent almost as much in repairs as I paid for the thing. Have any of you guys every heard of such a catastrophic cascade of events? The thing is professionally winterized and stored inside, the oil is checked faithfully, the maintenance is good. Is it possible we got a lemon or are we just really getting hosed by the dealership on this? Any help/comments/suggestions would be sincerely appreciated!

 

[seadoosnipe]

Hosed.....

I hate to say it, but yeah, this sounds like one of those dealerships that is greedy and is never satisfied with what they get. They don't care about their reputation because there will always be someone else to give them more money.

How can they know, without riding it themselves, that the pump is shot? Even if the wearing ring is bad, they only cost about $55 bucks from our Seadoo Warehouse. How does that measure up to $2500 bucks?.....

Why are they sticking you? Because you've taken it back to them each time you had a problem. You have given them your trust and they know that you believe everything they say.

I wouldn't doubt that they are doing something, each time you bring it in, to set it up for failure after you put it back in the water.

The GTI for 04 had two different model engines, the 717 and the 787. Both of these engines can be replaced for about $800 to $1100, depending on the model.

If you have the 717 model, it sounds like a problem as simple as your carb adjustments. If you have the 787 RFI, it could be a problem in the fuel injection or the RAVE valves. Without further information from you, it'd be hard to tell.

IF you like to do further trouble shooting, please give as much info as you can that leads up to the rough idle and if it goes away upon powering up the motor. I didn't look to see if your model has the RPM gage but if it does, tell us what you max out on it.

I can't tell you how mad it makes me to see someone like you come into the forum, who's obviously been taken advantage of. This is exactly what brought me into this forum.

Sorry for your misfortune. We, here in the forum, will do all we can to help you. The first thing I'd like to do, if you have the ski, is check the clearance on your pump............let us know.

 

[PWCdoc]

:agree: on this. Sounds to me like they are taking advantage of you. We'll help you out here for much less.

Do you have a digital camera? If so, snap a few pics of the pump area if you can. You might have to crawl up underneath to see it from the front. And if you have a few tools, heck you can go ahead and remove the jet pump yourself to give us a really good view. And if it's the wear ring and impeller as they state, I'll fix the darn thing for you for just the cost of parts and shipping - just for the priniciple of the matter. A brand new Skat Trak impeller, brand new wear ring and the pump oil all together is less than $300 at full retail. And the labor associated with that is minimal.

It's shops like the one you describe that makes it look bad for the rest of us legitimate shops.

 

[kustomkarl]

Welcome to the seadoo forum waterwheels. This forum is here for just this reason. This is a friendly place with lots of active members eager to roll up our sleeves and help out. If you have any mechanical skills we can talk you through almost any problem you have, or point you in the right direction.

Karl

 

[Nate Surveyor]

Mr/Mrs Waterwheels,

You are getting good advice above.




Nate

 

[waterwheels]

Thank you

Thanks to all of you for the replies. We'll get some photos as soon as we can and get them posted. Maybe we're getting to the end of the nightmare after all!

 

[seadoosnipe]

Your welcome....

Thank you for your post and please, PLEASE, ....follow up with this thread. There are several mechanics here that have great knowledge in helping you decide which way to go. With many mechanics, you get many different points of view as to which way you can go.........so please, give us a try. We can get this thing going for a lot less than $2,500 bucks.......:cheers: